Aaron’s POV

A truck was already parked in the drive way when I pulled up. The men must’ve just gotten there since they lingered by the silver body of the van. My own black pickup truck was parked down a ways, allowing easy access for the other drivers. I had no clue how many people to expect, so I just had to guess about five or more.

Miles Buyer wasn’t a very well-known trader. At least, I hadn’t heard of him before. None of the others in my house knew him either. The only reason we knew the name was by an older trader we had done business with. He said that Miles did a fairly decent job of breaking in the fresh-off-the-street kids.

Approaching the door, I neared the truck. The two men, both about my age, threw friendly smiles in my general direction. The tree that hung over the drive way rattled in anticipation as a squirrel leaped through the branches.

“Are you guys here for Miles?” I asked warily. In this type of market, you had to keep a low profile and not give any outsiders a reason to be suspicious. Of course, if it was another trader, you could gladly form relations and start deals…

“Yeah, we are. I’m Jack Barakat.” The man with the faux hawk with blonde hair extended his hand. I sighed with relief and shook it.

“Alex Gaskarth.” The other shook my hand. He had lighter hair that swept across his forehead, dipping past his eyes. They seemed nice enough.

“Are you a freelancer, trainer, what?” Jack grinned. He always seemed to have a smile and was attached to Alex at the hip, or so it seemed. If one moved, the other automatically adjusted his position.

“I live in house with four other guys. I’m typically the one who does the buying and selling.” I responded. It was the truth. I met with the others, we decided on a girl, and then I was the one who went out to buy, sell, trade, inspect, etc.

“Nice. That’s pretty big for a house. I would’ve guess a freelancer.” Alex laughed. I nodded. Most people thought I was a freelancer.

“Are you a guys house, I would assume?” Jack nodded, resting his arm on Alex’s shoulder.

“Just us two.” They smiled as one. It seemed like they were very happy together. We slowly meandered towards the door as Alex rang the doorbell. It looked like no one else was coming for details on the deal.

“Ah, welcome!” A brown haired man came out to greet us. We all shook hands with the man, Miles. He invited us in. The house was large and spacious. There was a living room just to the left, a kitchen off of that, and a hallway that led to a bedroom. Stairs allowed entrance to a second floor. A fancy house must mean expensive deals. I had a budget and needed to stick to it. Miles ushered us into the living room and took seats on the couch. I took careful note of the four padlocks scattered across the room.

“So you must be Aaron Pauley, Jack Barakat, and Alex Gaskarth.” Miles smiled and took the seat opposite of us. The coffee table that lounged between the two opposing sides sat shining in the light of the late afternoon.

“Miles Buyer, we’ve heard a lot about you.” I replied. Miles held up his hands.

“Well, don’t you make me feel popular!” Miles seemed like a very affable person. He was funny and kind. Maybe we could make future deals…

“We heard you have a new item.” Alex added in slyly. Miles nodded and looked to the far corner of the room. We trailed our glances over to the darker side where a striking blonde girl in a black hoodie and jeans stood against the wall. Her blue eyes were full of fear, but I didn’t know if Miles saw that or not. The blue of sapphires was nothing compared to her eyes and her face was only marred by one little mark down the left side of her cheek. Silver chains glinted around her neck.

Jack and Alex glanced at each other nervously. Maybe they were thinking about buying? The others at my house would really like her as a new addition. I might have to go a little over budget to take her home. Miles looked her up and down but Kyder refused to meet his eyes. In fact, her glance was trained on the coffee table like it was the most interesting thing in the world.

“Oh yes, this is Kynder. She came here about two and a half weeks ago, or so. Kyn was pretty easily trained, a little rebellious at first, but otherwise not so bad. She can be unruly at times but that’s ah….easily fixed.” Miles laughed. Kynder responded by pressing herself further into the shadows.

“Kynder, do you think you can be good today?” Mikes asked. She looked up at him, but her hands trembled in fear. I saw her gaze fall on the whip he had at his side. I knew trainers mostly used whips to break their subjects, like one might break a horse. There seemed to be something more than a whip that scarred her.

“Of course, Master.” She responded timidly. Miles got up and went to her side. Something clicked and she stepped out with relief written on her face. The three of us on the couch stood up to meet her. She walked behind Miles as he went to go stand by his chair. He loomed over her by a good five inches.

“Hello Kynder, I’m Alex and this is Jack.” Alex introduced the two. He extended his hand, which Kynder took nervously. I was up next.

“I’m Aaron.” I gave her a small smile. She seemed tamed enough. Maybe she would be okay in the house? Her eyes glanced up at mine, wide with terror at the thought of shaking someone’s hand. But she did take it. Her fingers felt soft and cold in my own. Her sleeve rolled back a slight bit and I glanced down onto a large bruise that marked her right wrist. The girl, only about eighteen or maybe nineteen, drew back quickly and went to stand at Miles’s side. The chain necklace jingled as she walked. By the way her hands twitched, I could see that it was irritating her.

“So where did you get her?” Alex asked hesitantly. Miles pointed to the floor and Kyn sat without question, staring at the ground.

“The collectors got her off the streets of Denver.” Miles nodded. Kynder moved a little, trying to adjust her position. Miles immediately ran a hand down the back of her neck, making her freeze and tense up. Oh, so that’s how she’d calm down.

“That’s a long ways away.” Alex whistled. My residence was located in a secluded part of California, near the border between Cali and Nevada. I think Alex and Jack were more in Utah, but were on a trip here and decided to stop by Miles’s house on the way. This location was only an hour and a half east of our house.

“I’ve had some good people come from Denver, so I was willing to pay a little extra to get her.” Miles grinned. Kynder still had her eyes on the floor, a blank expression on her face.

“She’s already broken, but I would suggest getting her adjusted to rules at your house, if either of you decides you want her.” Miles offered. I thought about it. It seemed like a tempting offer.

“She’s a little quiet, don’t you think?” Jack questioned, his glance trained on the girl sitting against the chair. Her eyes looked up to him, but the blank expression of boredom was replaced by a begging look for escape.

“She’ll open up.” Miles laughed, as if it were nothing. It seemed like he was lying.

“So how much are you offering for her?” I went straight to the point. I had to make it back to the house in a few hours and couldn’t be caught in traffic.

“Twenty five hundred.” Miles put down. Geez, that was pricey! Jack and Alex looked unfazed, but Miles caught my look.

“We can negotiate the price, if you’re really interested.” He raised an eyebrow. I would have to get back to the guys about it.

“I’ll have to talk to the others about it, but we might be seriously interested.” I answered truthfully, taking another glance at the blonde haired beauty broken on the floor. Alex, Jack, and I stood up and shook hands with Miles. Kynder hung back a step. The small party hung out at the exit to the dealer’s house.

“Kynder, come here.” Miles commanded firmly. The shy girl came up next to him, biding us a quiet goodbye. Jack stepped forward, still towering over her. She seemed to shrink back into the shadows with eyes as wide as plates. We all watched as Jack turned to Miles.

“Do you mind if I try something?” He asked. Miles smiled and signaled for him to go ahead and stepped back to give the potential buyer room.

Jack reached up slowly and Kynder flinched as his hand carefully caressed her cheek. We could all see it, her heart seemed to stop and she shivered under the touch of Jack’s tender touch. She seemed so touch sensitive, it was beyond belief.

We waved a final goodbye before getting into our cars. I could’ve sworn I heard a scream from the house as we pulled out.

Jack and Alex went first, and I followed down the abandoned dirt road behind him. They flashed their lights as soon as we were over the hills, out of sight of the house. Pulling over, they signaled for me to follow. I was curious as to why they would want me to pull over. As soon as I did, Jack and Alex got out of the truck and I hopped out to meet them.

“So now that we’re away from prying ears, what did you think about Kynder?” Alex asked. He and his friend passed a worried glance between them.

“She seemed too quiet, a little overly sensitive. What did you think of her?” I answered truthfully. Before I went into too much detail, I wanted their opinions. Jack sighed and ran a hand through his hair fearfully.

“As much as Miles was trying to sell her all of us, I don’t think he told us everything. Kyn was a little too quiet, a little too nervous with physical contact. Maybe that can be repaired, but there was something a little more than the unease in her. It was if she was broken a little too much, you know?” Alex let out a heavy breath with the question. Oh, I knew. We had a few that stayed with us a couple years back. One jumped out the window just to escape one of us coming up the stairs.

We didn’t want a repeat of that.

“We’ll probably have to back out of the deal. She’s all yours, if you were worried about us taking her first.” Jack held up his hands in surrender. I shook my head. These people were nice enough to back out and I wasn’t angry. The early evening sun started to poke behind the hills.

“I’m still going to have to talk with the others about this.” I bit my lip nervously. I wondered how the other four boys would take it.

“Well for now, it was nice meeting you, Aaron. I hope we can meet again and discuss further matters.” Alex smiled. We exchanged numbers and drove off, waving to each other as we went in opposite directions. They would be someone I had to call in the future.

Notes

JALEX, JALEX EVERYWHERE!!!
We'll be seeing more of Jack and Alex later in the story!

Keep reading, my lovelies! Tell me how you like it!

Rate/Comment/Subscribe!